Help! Which component is failing?

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gcefaloni

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Hi guys,

I've got this problem for over 3 months now which I thought was minor at first but now I'm afraid it's going to break some of my other hardware pieces.. My computer goes to sleep mode when it stays idle for a little while like most others do I suppose; problem is, at some point during that process it shuts down and tries to restart on its own, but it does it over and over and over again (You can hear the fans opening up as when you open your computer, then everything shuts down, and it restarts the process again..) until I just close down the power, wait a few seconds then restart power and reopen the computer normally.. It'll give me the little "Windows was closed improperly last time" or something then I just choose restart Windows Normally and it'll come back to the windows screen as if my computer went into sleep mode (User: xxx Locked in windows 7, then I just log in normally).. I suspect it's a hardware problem and one component is failing but I have no idea what it could be and I don't want to start replacing pieces one by one randomly..

More recently, the computer started giving me blue screens of death (yes on Windows 7, I thought those were gone!) randomly (maybe when it's thinking a little too hard?) but that doesn't trigger the repeated sequence mentioned above, it just crashes and restart on its own.. The repeated restarts only are triggered by the sleep mode process if I'm not mistaken..

I'm afraid it's a problem with the power supply and that it might cost problems with the other components eventually, on top of being extremely annoying when I fall asleep with the computer on still and then I get awaken in the middle of the night by the noise of the stupid fan restarting over and over again..

Can you guys help me? Any idea what the problem could be?

Thank you so much in advance.
Sincerely!
 
These are my current components, if that can help at all..

CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz Wolfdale 6MB 1333FSB 45nm
CPU Cooling OCZ Vendetta 2 CPU Cooler-MIR
Overclock Enable Overclock Function (CPU Stable Overclocking Service - Free of charge)
Memory 1 OCZ Plat XTC 4GB Kit DDR2 800MHz (OCZ2P8004GK)-MIR
Motherboard GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3L (4DDR2,PCI-E 2.0)
Hard Drive 1 Seagate 500GB 7200RPM 32MB Cache SATA (ST3500320AS)
Video Palit Radeon HD 4870 512MB DDR5
Audio Onboard Audio
Network Card Onboard Network Card
Case Antec Three Hundred The Versatile Gamer Case (Black)
Power Supply OCZ GameXStream Power Supply (NVIDIA SLI-Ready) 600W - (OCZ600GXSSLI)
Warranty 1 Year Parts & 3 Years Labor Warranty
 
the only way to test a psu is with a tester tool and a multimeter under load. The tool costs around $15

Usually it is just easier to replace it or swap it out with a known working one.
 
I also checked PC Health status in BIOS, they were all disabled, so no shutdowns due to temperature nor part failures were made.. as far as temperature goes.. I'm using Everest Ultimate, thats the temperatures I have at the moment..

Temp Mobo: 37
Temp CPU: 24
Temp CPU Core#1: 34
Temp CPU Core#2: 34
Temp GPU Diode (DispIO): 67
Temp GPU Diode (MemIO): 80
Temp GPU Diode (Shader): 73
Temp GPU VRM: 59
Temp Hard drive: 29
Cooling Fan CPU: 1.1
Cooling Fan GPU: 0.8
Voltage CPU Core: 1..3

if that can help at all..
 
Ultimately will (start replacing pieces, starting with the power supply..) but I was hoping that someone would know more specifically what that issue could be caused by (so that I would be able to fix the problem without investing in a new power supply :) )

But like I said, ultimately.. I'll just replace it and keep you guys posted I guess..
 
You don't have a hardware problem.
What you do have is an outdated BIOS most likely.
Gigabyte motherboards with P45 chipsets have problems resuming from S3 sleep states and go into a continuous reboot loop.
Check your BIOS-if it's not at least F9 then that's the culprit.
Educated guess is that before you had W7 you had XP.
Go here http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/BIOS_Model.aspx?ProductID=2844
to download the BIOS - F10 is latest non-beta, F11c latest beta for your board.
DO NOT under any circumstances re-flash your BIOS using @BIOS - there's a very good chance you'll brick one of your BIOS chips. Use Q-Flash. The best guide is here:
http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/bios-flashing-how-qflash-guide-27576/

Hope this helps- if you have the latest BIOS and this is not the answer (unlikely) then post again. I have an EP45-DS4P board in my second rig - the BIOS is the same as yours so I may be able to help you with any troubleshooting.
 
Good luck.
Remember to set your BIOS back to its default setting before the flash (333MHz CPU core speed (1333 FSB), DDR2-667), and set "optimised defaults" after the BIOS flash as you need this step to complete the flash. Lsdmeasap's guide at Tweaktown includes this stuff but a lot of people tend to miss out either one or both of them for some reason.
 
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